WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU PUT TOGETHER A BLANKET, FLARES, EXTRA WATER BOTTLES AND A CHARGED CELL PHONE???

What do you get when you put together a blanket, flares, extra water bottles and a charged cell phone?
Me.

Me and my really light weight convertible driving from south Texas *leaving today* to Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Snow storms, blizzards, really cold weather (lower than FORTY!!), black ice, truckers that really should have stopped hours ago for a nap on the interstate with me.....oh, my, that certainly doesn't sound right!

What I meant was that I'm on the interstate with truckers that should have stopped hours ago for a nap.

Not a nap with me.

Just a nap alone in their truck so that they don't fall asleep at the wheel and my car becomes their extra axle. (I think I know what an axle is so that crack should have worked...)

So, there you have it! I'm on my way to Michigan, laptop in hand so as to keep you up to date on all of the excitement on the way, while I'm there for FOUR *stinkin* weeks (another post), and the drive home.

Bringing mom back with me like I did last year. What a blast!! We do have fun!

So, until later, keep those prayers comin' for travel safety and I'll keep you abreast (still thinkin' about that trucker) of the adventures I happen upon on my way up north!

Loveyoumeanit.

You're the best!!

(oh, and not to worry, I'm takin' the giveaway with me:) It's all packaged up and ready to go out to the "winn'ah"!)

Hey, I'm taking all of my precious (leaving the stupid ones home) Valentines with me that are listed in my Lollishop.

Go order something.

I may need the money to pay the tow truck to pull my little lightweight convertible out from under than sleepy trucker!

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Blessing to you all,

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XOXO,

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"praiseGod,praiseGod,praiseGod"

Hi, my precious friends and family, my faithful prayer warriors, and all of you that voted for McCain. (I'm kidding, you sillies)

We'll start this post with a picture of my mother *going through her Publisher's Clearinghouse tree*
(get it? the trees they waste putting all of those packets together? Junk mail - another post...). She's home! She feels like sitting up and reading, she's eating and drinking (water - I'm drinking Boones Farm) JK!
If we keep her on her pain med schedule then she doesn't get a headache! woooooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

I was so happy when I saw my mom the morning after her *brain* surgery and saw how wonderful she looked compared to the night before {just after her surgery} that the words just popped out of my mouth - "I'M SO HAPPY!" when I saw her.
I was just so stinkin' happy! God is so good! I knew that he would fix everything, that he would heal my mother, but to have him do it per my request [heehee], uh-hum, in such a wonderful way was, well, all I can say is, "PRAISE GOD!" Remember my first post? "pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease"?
We're a far cry from that with, "praiseGodpraiseGodpraiseGodpraiseGod"! PRAISE GOD!!

Through all of this I was stressed from sitting, sitting, sitting at the hospital waiting, waiting, waiting for doctors, didn't get very good sleep *or enough*, concerned that the doctors weren't communicating with each other [don't get me started], determined to keep up with my blog posts for those of y'all that I knew were praying and checking for updates - you get it.
But not once, never, did I doubt God, loose my faith, waver in my belief that God was in charge no matter what his will. My mom was in the best of hands - His - and now she's home and doing fabulously.

The neurosurgeon drilled two holes in her skull and drained out approximately 1/4 cup of f-l-u-i-d. *gagging*
The night of the surgery, after mom had been moved into ICU, she had a honkin' headache ("I know!!") and it was pretty spooky looking down at her in her bed in the darkened room where we were told "no cell phones, no noise". Needless to say, my brother and sisters and I didn't stay long.
Flash forward to the next morning. . . ."I'M SO HAPPY!"

So. The next day, that would be yesterday, mom is being released - *happy dance*.
It's going to be a while before the paper work is finished and she can leave and Jean's at the hospital so. . . . . .Joan and I make a quick run to the antique mall in downtown Kalamazoo and I managed to get a hit, a fix.
These things below are just a few of the precious treasures that I found. Check out that sweet girl, and that small square box thing with the vintage ribbon. Those black dots are straight pins, and then there are the vintage baby shoes *I hope to make into pin cushions*, oh, and that fabric children's book, and the pink floral hat with pink netting, and that beautiful vintage hankie.
I wish you could have been there. I had goosebumps.

I just must show you a close-up of the vintage hankie. Isn't it gorgeous?
I found about a half dozen white vintage hankies there with beautiful needle work. Again, goosebumps.

One more thing and I'll stop talking! {I think because I'm getting to talk about something other than p-u-s and s-c-a-b-s that I'm a bit giddy}
Okay, these vintage Valentines were THE FIND OF THE DAY!
About 20 of them, all precious and all priced at, well, I just can't say it. It's obscene.
Wanna guess???
Hmmmm. Okay, I'm tired and wanna go to bed and read. Tomorrow will be here before I know it!
Oh, and fyi, I was supposed to be home yesterday, but, changed my plane reservations and will be staying with my mother until the 20th. That's two more weeks.
Please don't forget me - I'll need some type of stimulation other than a med schedule, taking mom's blood pressure 3X a day, doctor's appointments, walking to the mailbox and back every day for mom's exercise, cooking (okay, heating up what Joan cooked and froze), watching Law and Order re-runs day after day, and counting my blessings - I need y'all to keep me mindful of my studio and that it WILL be waiting for me when I go home.
Oh, and Frank the Tank??? He misses me terribly - says it's boring without me. Hope that doesn't change! LOL


XOXO,

MY MOTHER, MY FRIEND

I've been wrestling all day with sharing some things with y'all - before I get into all of that, look at this photo. It's my mother. She has always thought that she looks like a boy in this picture, but I think she looks like, well, like 'her'. And, look closely - you can see that she's holding the locket on the necklace around her neck.
Of course, I love this picture. I adore it.
What I've been wrestling with is sharing with y'all how bad yesterday really was for me. I have been skimming over my feelings about all that has happened to my mother when posting because
I am quite aware that I'm not the first one to deal with an elderly (she would kill me for using that word! LOL) parent's health issues.
So, why should I give what I'm going through credence by blogging about it, by telling y'all?
I decided that I should because, first of all, there are those of you that haven't dealt with aging parents and health issues and maybe what I'm going through can help you in some way.
And, also because this is my blog, my diary of sorts, and I can write about what I want to write about - ewww, a little attitude caused by stress. LOL

Yesterday was hard in that it was another day of watching my mom act like she's on morphine.
Which she is, I know that.
I'm not THAT stressed.
Watching her doze, see things that aren't there (a bug - oh gosh, if there really was a bug there, please let it not be a june bug), doze, refuse to eat, doze, drink very little, doze, and for some reason, yesterday she had to go to the bathroom (or felt like she did) at least 12 times during the day.
It was an exhausting day though not that unusual of one since I got here on Tuesday night.

So, when the night nurse got here at 10:30, I went to bed very willingly.
I read for a long bit (Water for Elephants - it's soooooo good), crunched my nightly glass of ice as I read (pure heaven), finished reading, turned out the light and settled down into the soft bed under the fluffy comforter (remember, I'm in Michigan where it's already winter).
Ohhhh, it felt so good.
I said my nighttime prayers which I usually fall asleep saying and laid there thinking about the day and all that my mom had been going through.
It was then that I started to sob.
I just started sobbing. No warning. No toilet paper.
I cried for what seemed like forever, but, in reality, just long enough to soak my pillow, puff my eyes completely closed and impact my nose with snot.
I was so sad.
It hurts me so badly to see my mom not be my mom. Does that make sense?
And, I am well aware that I'm not the first, nor will I be the last, adult child to go through this. . . .so, when your best friend, or a person that goes to your church, or a neighbor, goes through something like this, pray really hard for them.
Pray for them, cook for them, why aren't you cooking for me?, help take care of their family, hug them, and do favors for them without having to first be asked.

Y'all have been so wonderful to me - your post comments and your emails.
Thank you for caring enough about me to care about my mother.

love,

MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2008

MOM UPDATE:
mom is doing so much better today! she actually did quite well yesterday, also. She's been eating some (praise God), focusing, watching a bit of television(we just finished watching The Price is Right - it reminded me of the boys when they were young - they loved that show.), visiting, had a bath, and is wearing clothes instead of p.j.'s today!
I'm so excited about how she looks and is acting.

Praise God and thank you for praying.

And, after I finish this post p.s., i'm going to find that paper and glitter i brought with me! woooooooo hoooooooo!!!
I am so blessed with my family and friends. All y'all have been so darling. I cannot thank you enough for your prayers. Just keep on prayin'!

xoxo, jan

"pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease"

"pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.", was all I could whimper.

". . . . . .I am glad that God promises that his Spirit interprets for us when all we have in us is prayers like these. . . . ." (Jay Dozier, my friend and pastor)


I will pray for you at any time for any reason.
If you've got something sad, hard, depressing or tough, I'll be right there with the right words and the right spirit.

Until my precious mother fell backwards, knocked herself unconcious and literally, for real, cracked her skull and incurred a hematoma. A hematoma is blood between the skull and the brain causing pressure that gives you a killer headache estimated to last for approximately two weeks - that's the way this was explained to me).
This happened last Wednesday and landed her in ICU two thousand miles away from me.

Then, all I could pray, all I could whimper, was "please" and at times, "nononononononononono...".

Jay said it so well when he said, "Our individual cries for help are perfectly suitable. And when we link our cries for help with those who love the Lord, we are more able to see him working all things out for the good for those who love him."

I'm asking you now, if I haven't asked you already, to pray with me for my mother. My heart bleeds to hear my sister(s) tell me how she whimpers in pain, how she begs for more pain medicine.
It's been so hard being so far away.
I've not been afraid for my mother's healing because I know God is taking care of her, but, I am suffering along with her because I am so, so far away during this horrible time.

It's been scary news, bad news, then good news, then bad news, then good news.
We're back to the bad news.
Mom started out in ICU, was sent home, her headache was totally unmanageable and she was taken back to the ER in the early hours this morning.
She's been re-admitted to the hospital and will probably be there through Tuesday. They've changed her pain meds *yet again* and hopefully this marriage will work and she will receive some relief from the excruciating pain in her head.
If that happens, she'll get to go back home *under 24/7 care*.

If it doesn't, ohhhhh, this is so hard to say.
If it doesn't, she'll very likely be put in a nursing facility (I will not say "home" because the only way I am going to let her go, is fighting tooth and nail) until the pain is manageable, gone,
whatever.

Jean, Eileen and Joan have been there with mom since last week. They all have committments and jobs and families, so I am flying out on Tuesday (this Tuesday) and unless something changes and I need to stay longer, I'll be with my mom for two weeks.

I have custom orders to fulfill and holiday pieces to create, but I work well under pressure:) I should be back by November 4th, so I should be okay with "my job". *giggle*

So. There you go, dear friends. I'm counting on you to be praying for my sweet mother.
Oh, and for those of you that don't know what caused her to black out, it was her blood pressure. It dipped and she lost it.

If she had my butt, it would have hit the floor first instead of her head and we wouldn't be going through all of this. That's how I see it.



XOXO,